Summer is sweeter with this 1950s Jell-O Ice Cream Pie recipe

It's scarcely a secret that this time of the year and frozen desserts go together like bread and butter, pencil skirts and seamed stockings, and kittens plus balls of yarn. Ask any child - and many of that are still young at heart - what one of their favourite (if not very favourite!) food of the season is and chances are, ice cream will top their list.

I'm no stranger to a passion for this scrumptious treat either (as you may recall from previous posts such as this one about how to throw a vintage ice cream party), so as soon as the last of the Easter candy is polished off (and sometime even before! :)) and the mercury starts showing double digits again, my mind turns to thoughts of ice cream recipes.

Today's is so incredibly simple and easy that it can scarcely be called a recipe, but by definition it still is, and so I present to you an endlessly versatile Jell-O Instant Pudding Ice Cream Pie from 1957.



{A mere four ingredients and an hour is all it takes to create a colourful, delicious vintage pudding and ice cream pie of your own this spring or summer. Image source.}


You can use any appropriate store bought or homemade pie crust that you fancy. I've made this recipe numerous times and often use a fairly thick butter and (gluten-free, if I'm going to be having any) graham cracker crust instead of a pastry one, but have tried the original approach with great success as well. One fun trick is to make a chocolate pie crust if you're going to be using an ice cream flavour (such as mint, black cherry, peanut butter, coconut, or mocha) that partners especially well with the taste of cocoa.

Speaking of GF ingredients, while Kraft currently maintains they will always declare the presence of gluten or any other common allergen in their ingredient lists, I know for past experience with various Kraft products that did not specifically include gluten, that it’s still possible for cross contamination to occur and for you to get sick with some of their products. If you’re looking for a bona fide gluten-free instant pudding mix (that is also Vegan, thus making it egg and dairy-free by default), I highly recommend Natural Desserts.

This pie has so many of the hallmarks of a classic fifties summer dessert to it. Jell-O, a pre-made pie crust, no baking, and cheerful, beautiful pastel colours that look as though they could mirror those of some fabulous kitchens from that era itself.

You can further adorn, as the three examples here show, your ice cream pie with tasty toppings such as nuts, fresh fruit, mint leaves, curls of citrus peel, as well as other things like chocolate curls or shavings, mini cookies, candies, marshmallows, pretzels, candied fruit, candied ginger, or a drizzle of your favourite ice cream topping such as caramel, chocolate, cherry, strawberry, pineapple, or butterscotch (just make sure it's at room temperature or colder when you pour it over top so as to not risk melting the pie at all).

This dessert is awesome not only because of how it tastes, but because it's a not terribly hard on the wallet and is a (summer) breeze to whip up on even the most sizzling, energy zapping of days of the season, when you'd rather juggle live snakes than turn on the oven for the sake of making dessert.